The Complex Factors That Drive Students’ Sense of Belonging
An expert in student belonging and engagement in the digital environment explains the nuances of belonging, mattering and inclusion as well as how to foster well-being in higher education.
In this episode, we talk to social artist, designer and researcher Helen Storey about a career that has taken her from fashion runways to scientific collaborations to, most recently, refugee camps in the Middle East and Africa.
Storey is professor of fashion and science at the London College of Fashion in the Center for Sustainable Fashion at the University of the Arts London (UAL). In May, she donated her 30-year Helen Storey Foundation Archive of about 2,000 digital and physical pieces to UAL. In this interview, she discusses her journey – how she transitioned from award-winning commercial fashion designer to working with scientists on projects that, among other explorations, translate the first 1,000 hours of human life into textiles – and how she hopes the archive will benefit students.
Storey, who was awarded an MBE for Services to Arts in 2009, also shares insights from her humanitarian work. From creating Dress 4 our Time to becoming the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees’ first designer-in-residence, she explains how these experiences are now intertwined with her work at UAL.
The conversation covers what the arts and science bring to each other, the value of the tactile, and how art can be a conduit for people to connect with overwhelming issues such as climate change, plastics pollution and global displacement.
This episode is sponsored by Schmidt Science Fellows.
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